Talking To A Brick Wall: Iraq--Five Years Later

Today’s post begins with a fractal called Five Star. The symbolic military connection should be obvious and it the five stars are suitable markers for the five years.
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Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, In a speech commemorating the occasion President George W. Bush said that going to war was the “right decision” and that “this is a fight American can and must win” although he admitted it was “harder and more costly than imagined.”). Other highlights of the speech include these gems…
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* “retreat from Iraq now would embolden Iran and provide al-Qaida with money for weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States”
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* “because we acted Saddam’s regime is no longer paying the families of suicide bombers in the Holy Land.”
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* “because we acted Saddam’s regime is no longer shooting at American and British Aircraft patrolling the ’no fly’ zone and defying the will of the United Nations.”
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* “ because we acted the world is better and the United States of America is safer.”
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However, President Bush failed to a few items in his speech…
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* nearly 4000 American soldiers have been killed with over 20,000 more soldiers severely wounded and could be in rehab for the next 75 years. (I won’t even bother to comment on the sorry state of the Veterans’ Health-Care system.)
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* over eighty-nine thousand (that’s 89,000( Iraqi civilians have lost their lives.
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* so far, the War has cost five hundred billion dollars (that’s $500,000,000,000 for those of you who are fans of figures). The war is costing us TWELVE BILLION dollars a month.
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* since the start of the Iraq War the price of gas has nearly tripled, the Dollar has reached new lows against currencies world wide and gold is selling at its highest price ever.
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Now I’d like to respond to Mr. Bush’s comments…
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* “can and must win” Mr. President? What is your definition of CAN? John McCain (who’s in a position to know) said we could be in Iraq for the next hundred years. How long is America willing to stay there before we give it up as the bad job it is? Do we have to bankrupt the country first? (Sadly, I think a lot of “pro-war” types would say yes.)
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* “retreat would embolden Iran and encourage them to provide money for weapons of mass destruction” Mr. President? Excuse me--what makes you think they aren’t doing that already? We already KNOW Iran is developing nuclear weapons (and I don‘t mean like we “knew“ about the WMDs in Iraq) so it seems Iran is perfectly capable of developing those on their own without having to resort to a third party.
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* “Saddam’s regime is no long paying the families of suicide bombers” Mr. President? Funny--that fact doesn’t seem to have reduced the number of suicide bombings, did it? What--is some other government paying them?
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* “the world is better and the United States is safer” Mr. President? If this statement wasn’t so sad it would be laugh-out-loud funny. How can you--how can ANYONE--know that with certainty? Do you have sort of “alternate-reality viewer” that lets you look at the world as it might have been had we not gone in to Iraq? Come on folks! Get serious for one brief, shining moment!
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The United States invaded Iraq on the premise that they had weapons of mass destruction. General Colin Powell went before the United Nations saying we had “conclusive evidence’ of this while C.I.A. Director George Tennant sat behind him, knowing that it simply wasn’t true (so he said in his recent book). Why this isn’t a national outrage is beyond me.
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There are those who say “it doesn’t really matter WHY we went in. Now that we’re in Iraq we’re obligated to stay to ‘finish’ the job.” To this I say (as I have before) how long is that? How much more will we have to spend? How many more lives will be lost? And worst of all--how many American lives will be shattered bye their time in Iraq?
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I know I’m talking to a brick wall here. The “pro-war” types will keep repeating the same old saws over and over again and nothing I can say, nothing I can show them will change that. We’ll be fighting this war until we’re broke, the Middle East is so much flat black glass or our Country goes bankrupt--the Terrorists don’t care which. Me, I’d like to think that Americans are smart enough to give up on a bad job and quit throwing good money after bad in a situation that will NEVER get any better.
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Think about it.